Today, most of us spend our waking moments scrolling through the internet, whether it’s only our computers, laptops, tablets, or smartphones. The online world allows us to easily connect with people all over the world, so it’s no wonder why digital interactions are very addicting.
This shift to the online sphere means that businesses need to follow. If you’re a business owner, then it’s important to have a digital presence, even if you have an in-person store. Visit digitalspotlight.com.au for more information.
What’s great is that there are many digital marketing strategies you can employ. Read on to find out what they are.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
SEO is the practice of improving your website to make search engines happy. When they’re satisfied with what they find on your site, they’ll push your site up on search engine results pages (SERPs).
This is a type of organic marketing, which means all traffic you pull in happens naturally. Users find your site through searches, so it’s vital that you use the right keywords to draw them in.
Unfortunately, keyword research and usage is a complicated matter. Not to mention, the SEO world is constantly evolving. So while you can perform SEO on your own, it’s recommended that you hire a professional instead.
Content Marketing
Content marketing is the use of various content forms to promote your brand. You can use specific pieces in different legs of the customer journey to push consumers further along.
For example, blog articles are excellent in the awareness phase. People don’t know about your company and want to get a general overview of it.
Later, whitepapers are ideal for the consideration or decision phases. They’ll go into more detail about how your business helps customers and can show hard facts and numbers.
While there’s an assortment of content you can create, you don’t always have to start from scratch. In general, you can break down long-form content into short-form pieces. For instance, the essential points from a whitepaper can be recycled into blog posts, infographics, and even video content.
Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Marketing
Sometimes, you need a boost for your organic marketing. The fact that digital advertising spending reached $521 billion in 2021 shows that it’s a worthwhile investment. It can get you traffic fast while you build your organic strategy.
When things feel like they’re moving like molasses, PPC marketing is the injection you need. When you take out ads on sites like Google or Bing, users will see your ad on the top of SERPs if you’ve “bought” the right keywords and have the highest bid. You get to skip the line, so to speak, as you won’t have to slowly push your site up in the ranks.
The caveat is that obviously, paid marketing costs more than organic marketing. However, the good news is, you can set clear budgets. Once you’ve hit the set limit, the ad publisher won’t display your ads anymore.
Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing is an effective and affordable way to promote your brand. Almost everyone on the internet has at least one social media account, so you’ve got a huge audience. And usually, accounts are free to sign up for; at the very least, business accounts are cheap to get.
These platforms give you a way to engage with your target audience and get them interested in your company. You can also build brand awareness and drive traffic to your website. It’s perfect for sharing your content, as well as curated (and relevant) content too.
You can perform organic marketing on these platforms, but some offer paid ads too. An advantage to using these ads is you can segment your audiences to better pinpoint who to serve them to. As a result, you’ll have better marketing spend and return on investment (ROI).
Influencer Marketing
Speaking of social media, there are a few elite members who are called influencers. They’ve built large followings that trust what they have to say. In fact, these followers are usually eager to try what these influencers use.
Can you imagine how many potential customers you could get if you got in front of those audiences? Well, this is possible through influencer marketing.
This type of marketing creates a mutually-beneficial relationship since the influencers get free or discounted products/services from you. In return, they review and promote these things on their channels.
It’s best if you find influencers in a related field or the same one. That way, their promotions won’t seem forced or random. Also, there’s a higher chance that you have overlapping audiences, meaning they’ll be more likely to be interested in your brand.
Email Marketing
Email marketing takes advantage of the data you have at hand. For example, you might have a huge stack of business cards from a recent convention, but you haven’t done anything with these contacts.
You can put them to use through email marketing by nurturing these leads. After inputting these details, you can then segment them into hot or cold leads, then separate the hot leads further into different segments of the customer journey.
With an email marketing tool, you can create different email newsletters. These will send out personalized emails that’ll give them the information they need at the right time in their journeys.
This type of marketing complements content marketing since it’s a way for you to share new things.
Market Your Business Successfully on the Internet
As you can see, there are several digital marketing strategies you can use. They all have their own pros and cons, and may be more effective for some businesses than others.
The important thing is that you give them a try. From there, you can see which methods to focus on, then test and tweak, so you’re always on top of your marketing game.
It also wouldn’t hurt to hire professional digital marketers so they can do the hard work for you. That way, you can focus on your true passion: running your business.
Read the rest of our blog page for more advice on marketing your business.